New I Pod!

My favorite gift by far this Christmas was my I Pod Touch! I was feeling really lonely when my Nano died and I really just couldn’t stand the radio any longer but now I have a great new I Pod Touch to listen to Glee on! The initial reason for wanting a new I Pod was because my old one broke and I really wanted to listen to music other than what was on the radio! Now however the thing I can’t live without is all the apps!

Since receiving my I Pod on Christmas day I have gotten many new apps o my I Pod including, Words with Friends, Pandora Radio, Doodle Jump, Unblock Me, Penguin Wings, Glow Draw, Angry Birds, Finger Scan, Fruit Ninja, and Twitter! The App I use the most is Pandora Radio! I love being able to listen only to the music I like and nothing more, and the convenient size of my I pod allows me to stick it in my back pocket and carry the music with me where ever I go with out having to use my head phones! I have never liked wearing head Phones and I’m just ecstatic that I no longer have to put up with the uncomfortable ear buds! Also I love that I can listen to great music without having to buy it first!

Another App I use a lot is Doodle Jump! I’m really not very good at this game but it’s just so darn addicting that I can’t stop! I love being able to change the scene! My favorite scene is the under water one because I love the sound the bubbles make! Also even though I’m not very good at it, its not like I’m stuck on a level or doing the same thing over and over again! Everything is always different and I love it!

I also really enjoy playing Words with Friends, and Fruit Ninja! Words with Friends is great because if you’re tired you don’t really have to do anything! It’s really just an intellectual game and I’m terrible at spelling so I find it quite challenging! Everyone is always scoring more points than me! Fruit Ninja is the complete opposite! I like this game because you don’t have to think at all you just have to slash all the fruit that goes up into you screen! It’s all reflexes and I’m actually good at this game.

Probably the best thing on my I Pod after the music is the messaging! I love that I can message anyone who has an Apple product from my I Pod! It’s like having a separate phone except I like the set up better than my phones and it has a touch screen! Before I never wanted a touch screen phone but now I think a Droid or an I Phone would be really great!
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Reunited

New Years Eve was great this year! I don’t know if it was the company or the fun but I just had a blast! Last night one of my best friends came back into town. Her name is Jadyn and she moved because her step dad got a job in Illinois. I never get to see her and last night she stopped through town! It was great having the three musketeers back together again! Jadyn, Kylie and I, we just don’t get old! There’s always something to talk about or do and that is what defines a friendship. We’re never doing nothing and if we’re bored, it’s because we want to be, not because there’s nothing else to do!

This New Years Eve we just wanted to hang out so we started by eating dinner at my house! I decided we should have pizza, so we made some crust and put pesto, mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, and basil on it! The pizza was so good and we had a great time putting the pizzas together! The dough was so sticky and it was great trying to make it into a perfect circle! After we ate our dinner we primped and we primed before heading over to our friend, Adam’s house! His sister was having a party so we did some bad karaoke and ate some great food and just talked about random stuff!

Later in the night, at about 9:30, it was getting really hot in the house so we went outside and jumped around on the trampoline for a while before heading back to my house at about 10:30. Once we got to my house we got real crazy! We pigged out on barbeque chips and chex mix and drank as much sparkling grape juice as our little bodies could hold! We then decided we wanted to have a sparkling grape juice chugging contest! What started out as a good idea, didn’t end up as what we though! We all took one gulp of the sparkling juice and just started laughing! We couldn’t do it so we just went back inside to do something else weird!

Once it hit midnight we were up on our feet jumping around and we had decided to do the bend and snap into the New Year! So at 11:59:55 we bent over and at 12:00 we snapped back up landing the perfect legally blond bend and snap! After all it “works every time!” We had a great time freaking out at the New Year but the best part of our first day in 2012 was down in the basement talking about everything that you wouldn’t talk about on a regular basis! So many secrets were shared we couldn’t fall asleep till a little after four in the morning!

Just love New Years and I can’t wait till the next time the three musketeers get to go crazy once again!

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Good old Gary:)

The Christmas on my dad’s side of the family was very different this year. Just last year, a few days before spring break, my uncle died of cancer. His name was Gary and boy was he a character. The only real reason the holidays at the farm were fun, was because he was there. He always was able to make everybody feel good, and he was always in the best mood out of anyone. Even when he was battling with cancer, he still did normal things. He loved our visit to the Iowa State Fair eating anything we could find that was served on a stick! He always said the only good thing about the state fair was that you could eat your way through it.

 In his last year, although he didn’t look his best, he still acted his best. One day while going into the store where his daughter worked, he saw a hat. It was similar to a fedora, but just a little different with a blue ribbon around the bottom. When asking about the hat someone replied that it had been there for a while and no one had bought it. They said it must take a special personality to pull off a hat like that. My uncle Gary then decided to put the hat on and just take a waltz around store wearing it. He decided that he could pull off the hat and so he bought it and wore it every chance he could get! Along with the hat he decided to add some other new accessories. When going in to buy a new pair of glasses he settled on a round pair similar to Harry Potters saying that they were fun and that he liked them. Later he decided to grow a little goatee just for kicks and giggles… gotta love good old Uncle Gary.

Because we were always used to the old quirks, that were just so Gary, this Christmas felt different. Crown Royal was always my Uncle’s favorite whisky and he loved making drinks and making sure that every one in the family, not including the kids, got several strong ones. This year his wife took over the tradition but even though she made them strong, it was mentioned many times that they couldn’t be stronger than Gary’s. It was strange opening presents without the silly remarks of my uncle, but we all still got through it having a good time. But no way will Christmas ever be the same without good old Uncle Gary.

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Traditions

Every thing is changing. Every Christmas, in my family, is the same. I wake up, annoy my parents for awhile, yell at my siblings to get their butts out of bed, and sit on the steps waiting for all them to just get up and get out to the stairs so we can go open presents! We have many great traditions; I wouldn’t change any one of them for the world!

Every Christmas morning my parents wake up, and start getting ready for their day! My mom starts breakfast and my dad gets the video camera out. Shortly after they’re up and around, I wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to go see what Santa brought but there’s always just one problem. None of my siblings are ever awake! I walk around up stairs in my PJ’s, not bothering to be quiet just waiting for at least one of them to come out their door! After about twenty minutes of this, my dad grabs the video camera and we go jump on all their little sleeping heads and insist they must come out to the hall so we can go see if Santa came! My brother Ethan is usually the last awake and boy oh boy is it boring waiting for him!

First, we all sit on the top step of the stairs. We’re not allowed to go down until all of us are up and ready, so sometimes I find myself sitting alone for quite some time. Once we’re all there, my dad holds out the video camera asking us if we think Santa came, and what we think he brought us. This year however there was a question of a different color in the mix! He asked us what we were going to miss most about Christmas after my sister Elise gets married this summer. My oldest brother answered the question with, “It’s not like she’s going to die!”  We all started laughing! We continued this joke as we ran down the stairs to see just what Santa brought!

The first thing we do after getting down stairs is stake out where Santa put our pile of presents! After we find our “Christmas day perch” we all run and get our stockings, always finding a few signature Santa things. First we always get the same kind of candy. It’s in the shape of a ball and is all chocolate with a middle of a different flavor! Also we can always expect some band-aids, but they are never your normal tan colored band-aids. Somewhere in the world they sell band-Aids in tin cans and every year we all get band-aids with very different designs, such as bacon, pickles, or lips. Before we can open our real presents, we always eat breakfast and in every signature “Deborah Christmas Breakfast”, we always have a butter braid! They are so very delicious and I always look forward to eating them on Christmas

After breakfast we all go back to our spot in the family room and take turns opening our Christmas presents! It’s always fun seeing what everyone gets, but after seeing our sister opening many things relating to her wedding, all of our minds go back to the same question. What will we miss most after Elise gets married this summer?
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I love my family :)

Christmas has to be my favorite time of the year. But it’s not just all the good food and presents that make this season so great, it’s the family and all the memories that are either reminisced or created around Christmas Day! For me the best time of the Christmas season is when all of my siblings are back in the house! It’s nice to have one or two of them home, but when all four of us are together, there is never a dull moment in the Craig house! We joke, we laugh, we eat my mom’s amazing creations, we sing…well… I sing, we watch movies, we play games, and we sleep, and then do everything all over again! It’s always a party!

This year, when my brother Ethan came home from college, he brought his girlfriend with him! Even though all my family was able to meet her the year before, it’s still nice to be able to get to know her a little better! She is so nice, cute, and smart, and she really added to our pre- Christmas celebrations. But as exciting as it was to get to know her even more, my favorite part was when I got to spend time with just my big brother alone! Because he goes to school in Georgia, he’s always so far away and I don’t get to see him nearly as much as I would like to. My other brother is a lone wolf in Iowa City. Even though he’s only thirty minutes away, it seems like I only see him once a year! Only Christmas makes all of these things better!

Now Christmas is over. In two days, both of my brothers will be back in their own houses and my sister who only lives about 5 minutes away, has already been gone for two days. It’s already getting quieter around the house. My siblings are all out hanging with their friends rather than hanging out with the family, and everyone is starting to lose that Christmas spirit! I guess I’ll just have to wait until next year so we can just start all over again!

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Competition!

On a normal day-to-day basis, I don’t consider myself a gamer! Occasionally I’ll get out the PS2 or the Wii, but normally I just watch TV or movies when I’m bored! When family is home though, TV just doesn’t have enough excitement! This is when having two systems is worthwhile! My brothers and me are very competitive by nature and we love challenging each other at things that really don’t matter, just to see who will win! This year we centered on the Wii. We played Mario Party, Super Mario Brothers, and Mario Cart, all to see just who was “game” enough to win!

First we broke out the Super Mario Brothers! We ended up getting through about two worlds, by the end of break and my brothers definitely topped me on the skill level! I’m not bad, but I’m just not a guy! It takes a certain kind of person to be good at every kind of video game they play and I’m just not one of them! However, when we started playing Mario Cart, it was a totally different story!

When we decided to borrow the game Mario Cart from my neighbor, my brother Drew was all over me saying that I was going to get my butt kicked! He said I was going to lose every time, but I hardly think he is still saying such things now! After our first round we had played four races! In the first course, I got first place! In the second course, I was placed second while he was placed first. Although this is definitely not a bad ranking, it still gave him partial bragging rights, which I would definitely not allow! On both the other two races I was placed first and my bother instantly challenged a re- match! We then played another round of four races and I again got first in three out of four of them! Needless to say, I won the Mario Cart title!

The third game we played over break was Mario Party 8! If you have played this game, then you know it is about 99.9% luck and about .1% skill! Unfortunately my luck was not running free on the days we played this game! I always managed to roll ones and twos on the dice. Even though for much of the game I had the most points, I was never able to get to the star fast enough! Therefore, my brother Ethan took home the win on this game although I hardly think it counts since it took no real skill!

So even though I could only win one out of the three games played this year, I definitely think I am the over all winner! But I guess we will just have to wait until next year to see all of major video gaming skill!

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